75 percent of government CIO budgets flat or increasing in 2013

USA: Despite a continuing drive to lower the cost of IT services, nearly 75 percent of government IT budgets globally were reported as flat or increasing in 2013, according to the Gartner Executive Programs 2013 CIO Agenda survey.

Speaking ahead of his visit to Australia for Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in October, Gartner research director, Rick Howard, said: "After years of being told to "do more with less," many government CIOs report that budgets have stabilised or are increasing, placing them in a better position to deliver and manage IT services more effectively and efficiently. These CIOs are now poised to boost the business value of IT by radically restructuring their services portfolio to drive innovation and improve the performance of government."

He said the findings are in contrast to the private sector, which is significant as management practices, financial indicators, business metrics and the adoption of IT in government generally lag behind those of the private sector.

When compared to other sectors of the economy, the relatively brighter IT budget outlook in government may be short-lived, according to Gartner analysts. Gartner's CEO and Senior Executive Survey 2013 indicates that private-sector business leaders are poised to boost investments in e-commerce, mobile, cloud, social and other major technology categories.

Despite this, Gartner projects a modest compound annual growth rate of 1.3 percent for IT spending in the government and education sectors through to the end of 2017, with increased spending for IT services, software and data centres. These increases are offset by reductions in internal technology services, devices and telecom services.

Gartner's latest annual survey of 1,959 CIOs worldwide from all industries was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2012 and represents CIO budget plans reported at that time. It included 398 public-sector CIOs from all tiers of government around the globe. Survey responses are influenced by the size of government agency, political considerations, financial volatility, geographic region and tier (state, local, regional, federal or national). However, the "do better with the same" message should be communicated globally if CIOs are to help lead transformational change in their respective agencies and across government.

CIOs in government indicated that reducing overall business costs is now more important than reducing IT costs alone, which will permit government CIOs to accelerate enterprise-scale initiatives. The business and technology priorities of government CIOs are strongly aligned with their peers from all industries globally, with a few small differences.